The use of wireless transmission for data has sharply increased in the past decade and is likely to further increase in the coming decade. The most common form of transmission of such data is as packetized data wherein packets are transmitted as needed in contrast to circuit switched data in which a circuit is held for the duration of a call whether or not data is actually being transmitted.
It is characteristic of data transmission that such transmission is frequently sporadic, i.e., that there are intervals in which data is being transmitted and long intervals in which no data is being transmitted but a circuit is maintained because there is a possibility that data will be transmitted shortly. While a packet system does not use transmission resources when no data is being transmitted, such a system still requires the allocation of resources in the packet switch serving a mobile station whether the call is in an active transmitting state or in a dormant state. For example, even when the call is in the dormant state an Internet Protocol (IP) address must be retained by the packet switch along with other information about the destination or source mobile station even when the call is in the dormant state so that the transmission resources can be assigned to the call when the call goes from the dormant state to an active transmission and/or reception state.
A problem of the prior art therefore is that packet network switching resources are retained for packet data calls in wireless systems even when the call in a dormant state and unlikely to emerge from that state.